Iowa Highway Ends (etc.)

In no particular order:

• Friday was the 30th anniversary of the hottest day ever of the Iowa State Fair — August 16, 1983, which was Older Iowans Day that year. I was there.
• However, the National Weather Service was not there this year. Was its display “sequestered”?
• This time around, you could not have asked for better weather during the entire fair, so these attendance numbers are a bit stunning. I blame early school.
• It’s been five years since this happened, which I also witnessed.
• The sun shining through the west Agriculture Building skylight about 6:30 PM puts the Butter Cow in a whole new light, literally.
• One bit of fair tradition gone this year, maybe last year too: Daily markets are no longer written up outside the WHO Crystal Studio.
• Has the Swine Barn become the Goat Barn, or is it just my timing?
• Ads on the Sky Glider chairs? Bad form.
• There was a Lincoln Highway photo category and I missed it. *kicks self*
• It is (still) unnatural and wrong to see Halloween candy out at the grocery store while the fair is going on.
• Koltyn?!?!?!
• I had two items on this list (cheese curds and the double bacon corn dog), and partially qualify for three more: I had the sit-down pork chop instead of the stick, and had a funnel cake and hot beef sundae earlier this summer.
• If I had known the double bacon corn dog was served with syrup, I would’ve had it for breakfast instead.
• Re: the above two bullet points:

For a while now, the Iowa State Fair has offered half-price admission on the last day of the fair, and certain days after 5 PM, and advertised it as such.

This year, now that a ticket has risen to $11, Sundays and evenings aren’t quite half-price anymore — it’s “discounted” at $6. Maybe the booth minders are afraid of quarters or something.

In 2006, a ticket cost $10 with advance admission of $6. In 2007, the advance price was raised to $7. This year, it’s $8.

Ankeny — Iowa’s 10th-largest city in 2010 and 8th-largest school district in 2012 — is #37 on Money magazine’s list of “America’s Best Small Towns”. Waukee — Iowa’s 29th-largest city in 2010 and 11th-largest school district in 2012 — is #22 on the list.

Money classifies places of 10,000 to 50,000 people, regardless of suburb status, as “small towns”. (Full list)

Cedar Rapids Gazette: Iowa-based animal rights group douses State Fair ‘Butter Cow’ with red paint

The Des Moines Register has an article and video.

Perhaps the Onion was on to something with its “Iowa State Fair Guards Told To Shoot Non–Iowa Residents On Sight” article (the infestation of Nebraskans was just too much).

Noooooo!

I wonder if location became an issue. It was in a very visible spot, on the west side of Hawkeye Road between San Marnan Drive and US 20, but it was hard to get to — coming from 20/21, getting there involved three left turns and going a distance past the Fazoli’s to come back. But we may never know, because it looks like it even caught corporate by surprise.